Internet, Data usage from guests

Dear fellow guests,

I just had my inspection for licensing and was very nervous despite being very meticulous about everything. Thankfully, the inspector was happy with most things but insisted I should provide internet to my guests. (Something I planned to do in the near future but not right away).

I am now looking at options to provide Wi-Fi for my guests. Since I am starting out expenses are high and I am trying to look for a budget option for now. Internet packages here cost around 30-35 euro per month on a 2 year contract. At the moment I do not wish to commit myself to such contracts.

The other option is to buy a sim card and use mobile data with a Wi-Fi dongle. This option does not require any contracts and it works out cheaper. The problem with this option is that there are bundles with data limits and I don’t know how much would be sufficient. I am thinking that since I am in a touristic area people would not be using internet all day since they would be out sightseeing. Does anyone have any usage statistics? Do guests use internet a lot?

Any feedback would be of great help :slight_smile:

Thanks,

There is no rule of thumb.

I got guests only checking emails, children watching youtube all the time.
On rainy days I sometimes see guests watching Netflix.

Some use nothing sume use Gigabytes a day.

Internet is somehow expected from all guests today. Most of our guests are young couples and they used a gigantic amount of data. We had to make a houserule that internet is only for checking emails, searching information ect. No streaming and online gaming. Most of the guest respect this, but it happens they use internet all day long, and then we have to pay extra. We pay max. 20 Norwegian crownes extra a day if the guest has used to much data. After that the internet is just working very slow. Maybee you find a mobil data provider who has a solution like this.

By the way: We have a budget place, if I would host for a higher price, I would include high speed internet/Wifi.

Get a good router, with hotspot facility.

With this hotspot facility you can give vouchercodes to your guests, you can set a data limit for them.
They often have payment options build in, so if they want more than the free amount, they can pay extra to your paypal (or any other) account.

So you can offer free internet, but can put a limit on how much is free.
If they want to watch netflix all day long, you can ask 25 NOK to cover your cost.

I like the Unifi products, they have enterprise level functionality for consumer prices.

It looks a bit daunting, when you see it the first time.
But it is all quite obviuos.

Hotspot setup options:

Voucher creation options:

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Hi @travellinbug,

Where are you located?

I just have a separate DSL line for the rental room. It’s not wifi per se. But I’ve hooked up a wireless router to it. Wouldn’t regular cable or DSL be cheaper?